acid rain…that's not politics.

You're making the mistake of looking for heros and role models in entertainers. I completely agree that Stipe especially is pretentious, self reverential, and likely just a complete a-hole (my interpretation after close to three decades of closely following the band).

I found REM for good with LRP, though I had also heard and liked Murmur. From the mid-eighties onward I'm confident in saying that I've listened to more REM than anyone else…in the world. I would go hours, days, heck, months listening to nothing else…15-16 hours a day. Back then I was too young to understand my own…